The barren earth and dead trees reveal the blight of the Salton Sea, where water conservation efforts are attempting to restore the once natural playground and tourist site in California.
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Lenny Ignelzi/AP

The barren earth and dead trees reveal the blight of the Salton Sea, where water conservation efforts are attempting to restore the once natural playground and tourist site in California.

Lenny Ignelzi/AP

In the middle of California's driest desert is the Salton Sea, the state's largest lake. Once a popular tourist destination, the storied salty and toxic lake nestled in the Imperial Valley has been slowly shrinking over the years.

A water transfer deal passed in 2003 could speed up that process, and some are now worried it could be an environmental and health disaster for the region.

Standing near the Salton Sea's receding shoreline on a recent day, 75-year-old Ed Angel points to a ragged patch of desert with dying palm trees.

"That's where the yacht club used to be right over there ... and they had a hotel there, a two-story hotel," Angel says.

Angel, Salton City's honorary mayor, says in the '70s the place was packed with tourists who came for the restaurants, water-skiing and good fishing. Now, dead fish gently bob along the shore. Under the desert sun, the smell is overpowering. Tilapia, the only remaining fish in the lake, struggle to survive in water saltier than the ocean.

Residents in Salton City, a town of about 3,700 people that sits on the western shore of the Salton Sea, have watched their home values plummet, and many have moved away. At the southern edge of the Salton Sea, second-generation farmer Al Kalin works 2,000 acres of sugar beets, alfalfa, wheat and carrots. The 63-year-old farmer says the irrigation water from Imperial Valley farm fields has been replenishing the sea for decades.

Farmer Al Kalin, 63, has about 2,000 acres of crops along the Salton Sea. He's concerned a water transfer agreement is helping speed the decline of the Salton Sea.
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Gloria Hillard/NPR

Farmer Al Kalin, 63, has about 2,000 acres of crops along the Salton Sea. He's concerned a water transfer agreement is helping speed the decline of the Salton Sea.

Gloria Hillard/NPR

"The crystal clear water coming out of the ground ... that's the tile drainage water out of this field," Kalin says. "That makes up about 25 percent of all the water that goes to the sea."

The saltwater lake fed by agriculture water is also one of the last remaining waterways in Southern California for migratory birds. Kalin says they've found more than 400 species of birds in the Imperial Valley.

"That's more than anywhere else in the United States," he says.

Like many Imperial Valley farmers, Kalin is not that happy about the water transfer agreement that sends billions of gallons of Colorado River water to the cities of San Diego County. The 2003 deal was upheld by California's Supreme Court this year.

Negating The Impact

Halla Razak of the San Diego County Water Authority, however, says it's a win-win situation for both counties. Razak says San Diego gets water and the Imperial Irrigation District gets the funds to implement water conservation projects. She also disputes that the water transfer has contributed to the decline of the Salton Sea.

"We have been depositing water in the Salton Sea and absolutely negating any kind of impacts that the transfers have had on the sea," Razak says.

This is partially accomplished, Razak says, through a voluntary fallowing program that pays farmers to not plant crops. Some of that conserved water goes to San Diego and some goes to the Salton Sea. But the delivery of water will stop in 2018.

Herons nest in a tree along the Salton Sea. They are just one of the more than 400 species of birds in California's Imperial Valley that could could leave the area if the lake dries up.
Courtesy of Al Kalin
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Courtesy of Al Kalin

That was when the state was supposed to have a restoration plan under way for the Salton, but that hasn't happened. So now, the San Diego County Water Authority, along with the Imperial Irrigation District, is seeking to stop the delivery of water four years early.

Imperial Irrigation District officials say the money saved can build habitats for birds and other wildlife with a series of shallow ponds designed to establish a fish population.

Causes For Concern

In the meantime, the Salton Sea continues to decline. Researchers say the sea could reach its tipping point in just a matter of years. First, the fish will disappear, and then many of the birds that depend on those fish will go elsewhere or die off entirely.

Other concerns are dust storms from the soil that has been exposed from the sea's drying up. It has become a toxic mix of metals, salt and agricultural chemicals. Farmer Kalin says that when the wind blows, it's like tear gas.

"This white dust we have — it burns your eyes, it burns your nose [and] your throat. ... People don't have any inkling of what it's like," Kalin says.

Residents in Salton City remain worried, and what's going to happen to the area is daily conversation. Some say that if the lake dries up, the people can't survive.